1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for packaging bulk material. The invention relates particularly to the packaging of possibly perishable bulk material, for instance food products such as milk powder.
2. Description of Related Art
In the packaging of such products for the purpose of wholesale or further processing relatively large packages are filled with the products, which are here often in powder form. It is desirable here for many reasons that the packages remain free of oxygen. Not only can the products perish due to enclosed oxygen, the oxygen can also cause clumps to form in the products or cause the thus filled packages to become large in volume and unstable during the stacking thereof because of the enclosed oxygen.
For this purpose it is known to add gas, such as CO2 or a gas mixture of nitrogen and CO2, to the bulk material during the transfer of the bulk material for the purpose of preparation or packaging. This usually takes place before or during a transfer, when the gas is transferred via a hopper or other throughfeed means from a first holder, such as a container, to a second holder. The bulk material is then transferred to a package at a later stage, wherein oxygen can once again get into the product. Although attempts are therefore often made to drive this undesired oxygen out of the package by compressing, pressing or blowing in gas, experience has shown that the oxygen is in this way not driven out of the package to sufficient extent. It is therefore an object of the present invention to arrive at an improved method for low-oxygen or oxygen-free packaging of bulk materials, or to provide a usable alternative.